TMSAA State Track and Field Championships

There are two classes in the middle school State
Championships track and field meet, the A and AA.Small school and Large schools
respectively.But believe me, at this
stage it is tough to discern which one has the more potent talent base because
they seem so closely matched.

This meet requires the athletes to run in one of four
sectional qualifiers to end up with a total of 16 athletes entering for each
gender in that division.So, for example
in the 100 meter dash, you'll see two heats for the girls A, two heats for the
boys A, then two heats for the girls AA and two for the boys AA.The meet is held at Austin Peay University
and if you haven't been there lately, they've recently completed renovations to
their football/track stadium and it's really a nice spot to have a track
meet!

With this many athletes participating, I'll try and pick a
few of the highlights that you can expect to see at this meet.And again, with this many very young athletes
competing, I can tell you that it is practically impossible to predict the
outcome.There no doubt is excitement
when you watch the Olympic track and field championships, or possibly the
NCAAs, or any of the conference championships.But if you want to see some really exciting - and unpredictable -
performances, come and watch this Middle School Championships!With middle school athletes participating in
who knows how many sporting events and other activities, it's hard to know what
one is capable of doing until one day on the track, they just jump out and
surprise you!So, be prepared to be
surprised.

In the meantime, based on their qualifying times, I'll try
and point out a few of the events that might just be the ones to keep a close
eye on Saturday at the Austin Peay track.Starting out with some field events, there's Bellevue's Serena Lee who
is coming into the meet with a 5-4 leap.Serena placed second last year at this meet when she cleared 4-8 which
tied her best of the season last year.This year, she's consistently cleared 5-0 until the West sectional where
she better that by those four inches.Like I said before, you can expect to see some unusual performances with
these middle school athletes!

The girls shot put looks to have three girls with marks over
34'.Grandview's Emalyn Casey has a 34-6
seed, Katie Riggs (Rogersville) and Robertsville's Jazmine Moore both made
impressive throws of 35-10to tie at the
top seed coming into this meet.Any of
the girls ranked in the top seven or so still have a chance to see the high end
of the podium at the end of the day though as they all have talent.

Looking at some of the running events, one stands out as a
fairly lopsided markHaving a 15.35 in
the 100 hurdles is a very strong seed time and Tyra Nabors, an 8th
grader ( Leadership) should be a shoe in to win unless... well, it's the hurdles
you know!Picking a runner up to Tyra
might just be a tough call since there are eight girls with times from 18.12 to
18.89!That's a tight setup for
sure.Laci Johnson, Kaniya Floyd, Rosaly
Del Rio, Cameraon Castleberry, Maggie Fronig, Kayla Winfield, Lovely Pinson,
and Addie Stadler round out that list from top to bottom.I'm not even going to try and guess on this
one!

The 1600 for the Class A girls has a young athlete that even
though is just a seventh grader, I've seen run a few times the past couple of
years.Dinah Winders has the fastest
seed of 5:44.45 and is really poised to be the one to beat at this meet.Even though Shelby Knight (5:44.89) and
Aliyah Williamson (4:45.49) have times close and will certainly be thinking of
a win themselves, Dinah comes from a running family that, well, just have a
tendency to get to the front and stay there!But I believe this will be a close race with a tight and small group up
front and will come down to the last few meters before a title is tagged!This probably is one of the races that I am
really looking forward to watching.

On the boys side, one mark that really stands out for me is
Union City's Neil Brown who comes into this meet with a 140-07 mark in the
Discus!That is a huge toss and at a
state level meet, I'm really excited to see what he is capable of here.The high jump here also looks almost like a
high school meet with guys at 6-0 and 5-8.That's Colby Goode with the top seed and Ahmaudd Sankey right there
behind him.And really, there are nine
guys coming in with 5-0 or higher marks, so this could really be a wide open
event.

The guys long jump has a 19-6.5 top seed by Nor-marcus
Jones, an 18-9.25 by Kendall Ducksworth, 18-7.5 by Caden Williams and 18-2 seed
by Matrell Boyd to round out the top 4 guys all over the 18' mark.It really seems like these athletes are
getting better and better each season!

Running down the seeds for the 100M dash we have three guys
under 12 with Dante Prowell (11.56), Marius Steward (11.86), and Kendall
Ducksworth (11.92).Then there is a
handful of guys with marks under 12.30 and so this race is going to be a photo
finish for sure and could be anyways for the taking.The same is to be said about the boys 200
also with 3 under 24 and almost the same names with Ariyon Paige just upping
Kendall as the third under 24 seconds.

Obviously with these many good athletes both Division A
relays are going to be fun to watch, especially with the seed times practically
at the high school level times!

In the big school division, Division AA, it appears we're
going to see some great field events as well with Evan Neal leading off the
discuss with a 128-9 mark and Aaron Benson with a 45-5 in the shot.The girls shot is impressive as well with two
girls over the 36 mark with Hope Anderson leading the way at 36-1.5 and Hallie
DeArman just a very small margin behind in 36-0.5.Yep, only an inch behind.Should be interesting to see these two battle
for the top of the podium.

Kind of similar to what we see in the girls hurdles for the
A division, the boys AA hurdles has Skyy Craig of Ocoee Middle setting a
blistering mark of 14.80 in the 110 hurdles. The 100M dash here is boasting a solid field
with five guys under 12 seconds leading off this field.Javin Burke leads that group with a top seed
of 11.36.Javon Davis comes next with
11.71, Jayleen Greenwood at 11.75, Parker McGill just behind at 11.7 and last
of the sub 12's comes Kerry Hunt at 11.95.Folks, for a middle school race, this might just be a tough race to win
for sure!

As much fun as the A class 1600 looks to be, the Class AA is
going to be fast.Last year Sasha Neglia
blistered the field in this race and it appears we might just see Maryville's
Andie Marie Jones do the same in the girls race.Her 5:17.94 is almost ten seconds ahead of
the next seed of 5:27.74 by Marilyn McCarthy of Siegel.The boys also has a couple of guys under 5,
with Colby Freeman at 4:57.22 and Ryan Lovelace with the top seed of
4:52.42.

Needless to say, the middle school state championships this
season seem to have some very impressive athletes coming out to display their
talents.If you're in the Austin Peay
area, and like track and field, come on out to watch these young athletes...